


Smiles for Miles

by Babenclaw



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: M/M, One of my many terrible AUs help, commuting, toll roads, written because I was told to idek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-24
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-18 01:44:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7294489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babenclaw/pseuds/Babenclaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's ungodly to be smiling that much at seven in the morning, Riku is sure of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smiles for Miles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Thalassa_Promise](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thalassa_Promise/gifts).



Riku was not really much of a morning person. No, scratch that, he was _definitely_ not a morning person. If he had a choice, he would much rather be curled up under his thick comforter at home, his curtains pulled against the morning light. But no, rather than being comfortably in bed in his flannel pajamas, here he was, wearing a goddamned suit and squinting angrily against the sunlight shining through his car window, six cars back from the only toll booth that seemed to be open.

Why the hell did they have six toll booths if they were only going to bother to open one? It was a Monday morning, for Christ’s sake. Who made these decisions?

Three cars now, and Riku reached for the mug of hot coffee sitting in his cup holder. The liquid within was hot and bitter, black and full of sugar, and by the time Riku was at the window he was feeling more awake, if only marginally.

“Good morning!” A chipper voice rang from outside his open window, causing Riku to nearly spill his coffee in surprise. He glared at the guy hanging out the toll booth window, all bright smiles and brighter blue eyes, and silently handed him the exact change needed for the toll. He hoped the boy would read the irritation in his eyes and leave him alone, but no such luck. The boy dropped the change in the machine in front of him and produced the ticket Riku needed, still smiling and looking for all the world like there was no place he would rather be at seven in the goddamn morning than in his little booth in his stupid looking orange vest. Riku hoped savagely that he knew how idiotic he looked.

“Have a good day!” he said, but Riku was already rolling his window up and driving away, scowling into his mug of coffee. Guys like him were the absolute worst.

\- - -

Riku pulled his car into the line for the toll booth the next morning, his fingers already gripped tightly around his handful of change. He hoped there would be someone different in the booth, perhaps the tired-eyed middle-aged person he’d come to _expect_ when it came to these stupid toll booths. The sun seemed out to get him today, a personal attack on the ache behind his eyes that could only come from the sleepless night Riku hadn’t meant to have. The silver-haired man was relieved to pull under the overhang. At least, he was until he rolled the window down and met the too-bright, too-blue eyes of the same guy from the day before.

“Hello again!” the boy nearly chirped, and Riku couldn’t help the tension in his jaw at the innocent excitement that colored his voice. Nobody should be that excited before noon at the earliest, if at all. He silently held out his hand, dropping the change into the brunet’s waiting palm. The young man seemed to take no offence from Riku’s silence.

“Where you headed?” he asked as he punched numbers into the machine and deposited the coins. Riku took the slip offered out the window and tucked it into his visor, the same as the day before.

“Work,” the silver-haired man said, his voice curt. Without another word, he rolled his window up and pulled through the raising gate, purposefully ignoring the waving hand from the toll booth in his rear view mirror.

\- - -

By Wednesday, Riku was suffering. How did normal people do this week in and week out? He missed college, where he purposefully avoided any class before two pm, with an acute clarity as he pulled his car into the toll booth line. There were two toll booths open today—the one that was usually open and the one at the far right. Riku pulled through the far right one, dropping his change silently into the worker’s hand without noticing a singular thing about her. She gave him a tired smile as she handed him the slip, and Riku pulled through without saying a word.

There. That was what toll booths were supposed to be like.

So why did he feel so weird about it?

\- - -

Thursday he pulled through the left toll booth, even though the line was slightly longer. He told himself that he’d only made this decision because he hadn’t been able to get over to the right hand lane safely, that he didn’t have any other reason for picking the longer lane when he was already running a few minutes behind for work. Right.

He ignored the light feeling in his chest when he pulled up to the booth and caught sight of that messy brown head of hair peeking out of the window, ignored the way his heart leapt a bit at the bright grin that spread across his face. It was probably just heartburn or something. He’d had more coffee than normal that morning, after all.

“Good morning!” the boy said, and Riku was smiling back before he had time to think, a small shadow of the brunet’s shining grin but a smile nonetheless. He handed a dollar bill through the window instead of his usual handful of exact change, forcing the boy to count out coins in return.

“I missed you yesterday,” the brunet said as he counted nickels, and Riku tried to hide how pleased he was that the boy had noticed his absence. He took the offered change and his paper slip like usual.

“Have a good day at work, okay?” He said, and Riku nodded before pulling through the raising gate. He went to tuck the ticket up into his visor like usual, but a small piece of paper he hadn’t expected fluttered down when he went to do so. Riku cursed softly, tucking the slip into his pants pocket before hitting the gas to merge onto the highway.

It wasn’t until he was back home that night that he remembered to check the slip of paper. Written there, in sky blue ink, was a single word. He ran his fingers across the dips in the paper, imagining tanned hands writing the word with a pen that probably looked as silly as the orange vest he wore to work.

Sora.

\- - -

When Riku pulled through the left booth on Friday morning, he was greeted by the bright smile and bright eyes that he now had a name for. It was strange to Riku, looking into those cerulean eyes and thinking _Sora_ and knowing that that was his name. Sora. Sora.

“Riku,” the silver-haired man said as he handed the change through the window, forcing Sora to pause for a moment.

“What?” Sora asked, halfway between the car and the machine.

“My name,” Riku clarified for him. “It’s Riku.”

“Riku,” Sora repeated to himself as he punched the buttons and handed the slip back. “I like it,” he said finally, and gave Riku another one of those glittering smiles that made his stomach twist in weird ways. He took it, placed it into his visor, and then gathered what little courage he had left.

“See you Monday, right Sora?” Riku asked as Sora lifted the barrier between him and the highway.

Sora grinned, all bright eyes and shining smiles, and nodded. “Of course, Riku. See you Monday.”

**Author's Note:**

> Written and published on one fifteen hour road trip with my roommates, one of whom actively told me to write this despite not shipping Soriku at all. Y'all are the best.


End file.
